The Simplified Planner

Well, it should come as no surprise to you that i’m writing a post on a planner. Have you ever seen New York Minute? The Mary Kate and Ashley movie? Well one of the girls is obsessed with her planner and when it goes missing she has a mini panic attack. That would be me!!!

I live through my planner.

I breathe my planner.

My planner is basically my best friend.

Sometime in November I was out Christmas shopping and stepped into this cute little paper boutique. I was looking around, checking out the sale section, and lo and behold…a SIMPLIFIED PLANNER. This planner is one that I had wanted to try for some time, but couldn’t fathom paying around $60 for it. I had it on my Christmas list, but was able to cross it off once I realized this bad boy was 70% off. I was sure there had to be something wrong with it, or it was last years edition, but nope. Perfect condition just at a great price. So I snatched that bad boy up and come home the happiest camper. Now i’m sharing it with y’all today.

One of my favorite things about the planner is that it has metal spiral binding. When I had a Vera Bradley planner in 2014, the back would always come undone and I would have to re-bind it. Weird, right? It got super annoying, too.

I love the metal corner protectors as well. I am hard on my planners (because they go EVERYWHERE with me) and these have held up for the past 3 months that I’ve been using it. The laminated month tabs don’t bend/tear/break and I love how colorful they are making it easy to read.

The inside pocket is where I keep all my necessary papers, reminders, etc.

Such as the Group X schedule for school! I keep receipts in there too if I need them.

I use a paperclip to hold all of the pages of passed days, so when I open my planner it goes straight to today. I don’t want to spend time flipping through all the pages trying to get where I want to be.

This planner started in August, so when I got it towards the end of November I had a lot of extra pages that I didn’t need. So instead of using notebook paper, I usually write stuff for the blog on those pages. That way I always have it with me, just like my list of guest bloggers.

I also keep lists of ideas from you sweet people in my planner, so when i’m trying to think of posts I want to write, I refer back to this list….see I DO LISTEN!!! 🙂

So with The Simplified Planner there’s a daily and weekly view, and i’m super thankful to have gotten the weekly view. I feel like with the daily view I would have had too much space, I feel like it would be too much paper for me. I write a lot down in my planners, but since it is very personal I just posted one that didn’t have much written.

My weekly view shows all my appointments, to-do’s, work schedule, and schoolwork. Each of my classes is highlighted in a different color to keep them separate.

I keep track of all my workouts, too. And then occasionally I will be flipping through some pages and see one of my oh-so-funny siblings left me a note. Ps. notice the paperclip!

Before each month, there’s a monthly view. This is where I keep my blog schedule. I love this because I used to keep a separate planner for my blog and my life and I didn’t like having to carry around two separate planners. Now I have it all in one. I also like this because I can go back and look at when I posted each blog. Then, I usually check them off as I do it or I “X” it out if I didn’t post that day.

This is how a month starts, and then as I come up with what I want to write about I start a list on the side. And then depending on what’s going on, what I want to write about, what information I have or research i’ve done, i’ll place it in a box and schedule it for that day! In the above picture you can also see that I keep my monthly/fitness goals on the side because I refer to these pages a lot. That way I always see them!

The back cover page has this little quote that’s signature to Emily Ley. Love. It.

Papers, paperclips, scheduling, plans, blog posts…this is my life. Right here on these pages.

It’s time to get planning, people!!

So tell me, what questions do you?

What type of planner do you use?

Have you tried The Simplified Planner?

Let’s talk about organization today!!! One of my very favorite topics 🙂

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! It’s time to talk favorites this morning with Erika, Andrea, and Narci.

 

Monday morning I announced that I wanted to host an online Bible study for us blogger friends to participate in. Comment on that post or this one if you’d like to join in. This next week I am going to contact everyone to get it rollin’…it’s going to be my favorite part of the week!

Yesterday morning I asked y’all what type of posts you would like for me to publish. I know sometimes I find articles online and they sound boring and not interesting at all. I don’t want this blog to be boring or uninteresting to you. So tell me what you want to read from me because your questions are my favorite!

The other day I was out shopping (not even for me, it was for Christmas) and I stumbled upon a store I knew carried simplified planners. They’ve never had them in stock when I went in to look at one but I figured what the heck i’ll give it a try! Lo and behold this puppy was the only one in the store….and 70% off…and nothing was wrong with it!!!!! I about died and couldn’t pay for it fast enough. I’m officially all set for 2016 and this is definitely my favorite gift to myself 😉

I made my faaaavvvvvoritteee peanut butter cup protein pie last night and had to practice some serious self control as I wanted to drown myself in the entire thing. If you haven’t made it, DO IT! You can thank me later! And I promise you will 😉 It’s better than my non-foodie-blogger-pics make it look.

This girl is coming home tonight! Whoop! She hasn’t been here since August so i’m sure she’s excited to sleep in her own bed. And we’re excited to see her. I love Thanksgiving for bringing family together. It’s my favorite holiday (remember I switched from 4th of July haha)! Not to mention my school has all week off so HOLLA SLEEP!

Fitness Goals Update – Week 2!

1. No eating after 8:00 p.m. I did this every day last week, but this week I only did 3 times! Wahoo! Maybe next week i’ll cut it down to once? I still have issues with this one. Am I hungry because it’s been 4 hours since dinner and I need some fuel? Or am I hungry because I know it’s been 4 hours and I feel like I need something?? I don’t know!!!
2. Meal prep every Sunday for the week ahead following the 21 day fix plan. I still had a lot of leftovers to eat, so I didn’t make anything new on Sunday. This weekend I will! And i’ve definitely been failing at the 21 day fix food groups.
3. Eat 5 small meals without snacking in between those. This week I just ate when I was hungry but tried to be conscious of when it was. Some days I know I ate more than I should have in one sitting, but I just felt like I couldn’t fill up.
4. Work-out 5 days a week. Working out more than that. Check!
5. Cut down on the carbs. From looking in my food journal i’ve noticed lots of larabars or quest bars and lots of my protein shakes. Those add up in carbs along with others that i’m already eating. Less protein bars/protein powder this week!

I’ve realized that last night and the night before I have been feeling very bloated and uncomfortable..usually a norm for me but not lately so this was weird. This week I want to figure out if it’s because i’m eating too much, or the protein powder I used in the peanut butter pie, or what. I just wish I had this fitness thing down already. I feel like i’ve been working on it so long (not just the past two weeks) and it’s not exactly what i’m wanting.

But it’s a new week, so here’s to that. Do something great this weekend! 🙂